Microsoft founder Bill Gates a Chinese peace prize nominee

Microsoft founder Bill Gates, pictured, has been nominated for a Confucius Peace Prize. Last year's accolade went to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Source: AP

FORMER UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Thailand's prime minister and Microsoft founder Bill Gates are among those nominated for a Chinese alternative "peace prize."

Organisers of the Confucius Peace Prize announced the nominees on Sunday for the accolade that last year went to Russia's Vladimir Putin for enhancing his country's status and crushing anti-government forces in Chechnya.

The China International Peace Research Centre launched the prize in 2010 in an apparent attempt to counter that year's Nobel Peace Prize, which went to jailed Chinese dissident writer Liu Xiaobo.

He is serving an 11-year prison sentence for co-authoring an appeal for political reform.

Liu's win enraged the government and Chinese nationalists, who accused the Nobel committee of interfering in China's legal system as part of a plot to bring the nation down in disgrace.

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